


Scream

by frozenfairest



Category: One Piece
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 13:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenfairest/pseuds/frozenfairest
Summary: Perona is a medical examiner in the city of Dressrosa. After getting a case that has her gut screaming at her that something's wrong, she ends up requesting help from Trafalgar Law, top surgeon in the city. He seems to know a lot more than what he's telling, and the case suddenly goes from weird to dangerous.Tags will be updated as time goes on. Perona and Law is a good ship, and I will take that truth to my grave. It deserves more love and attention.
Relationships: Perona/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	Scream

**Author's Note:**

> There’s a lot of world-building (or my attempt at it at least) in this chapter, so not a ton really happens. This is my first time trying to be more descriptive with my writing, so hopefully I did an okay job! My intent is for this world to be pretty similar to the world of One Piece, but with some key changes. The technology will be the same (like den den mushis) and there are still all the strange looking characters and races as well as Devil Fruits, but there aren’t necessarily pirates. However, that doesn’t mean weapons aren’t something that isn’t needed. There are other threats besides pirates here.

Normally, Perona wouldn’t have needed to ask anyone for help. After being adopted by one of the best in the business, Gecko Moria had essentially groomed her to be his successor. Perona hadn’t minded, she’d always had a penchant for the morbid and macabre. With his teaching, she had easily become the (second) best in the business.

No, normally she wouldn’t have needed help. She had seen a lot of strange fatal injuries in her short time as a medical examiner, even more when she had been in her apprenticeship with Moria. But this…something about _this one_ was off.

“Case number 32, decedent is a human male age between 30 and 40, approximately 5’11”, found with multiple clean lacerations all over the body,” she said, recording with her loyal mini den den mushi, a sleepy but decidedly cute little thing decorated with glitter and a skull on it’s tiny shell. Perona sighed, “…something is weird about this one. The cuts are too clean, I’ve never seen anything quite like this one. I’m gonna talk to Robin about this. End recording.”

The snail immediately closed it’s eyes, drifting off to sleep as it’s pink-haired owner patted it affectionately. After diligently putting the corpse back in its frozen resting place, Perona threw away her gloves and mask, hanging her lab coat up afterwards on its designated hook by the door that lead to the rest of the basement of the hospital. Taking off the scrubs that she wore over her regular clothes, Perona threw them in the makeshift laundry hamper she kept just outside of the door that led to her personal room in the back of the morgue.

Perona had only been the medical examiner for roughly a year and a half. Moria’s unexpected passing had thrust her into the position before she had really felt ready. Although, she figured she never would have felt ready, as Moria had always been so sure and knowledgeable compared to her inexperience and sometimes forgetful nature. The added effect of Moria being the closest thing she had to a father, her emotions had been in utter turmoil. But, with his teachings in mind, she had gotten to work and found it was weirdly therapeutic.

Walking into her room, which had once been Moria’s, she glanced over at the giant pair of scissors that she had hung up on the wall. They were Moria’s favorite weapon, although he never used them much, and they had meant a lot to him, so they in turn meant a lot to her. Plus, she found that they were useful as a sort of cute makeshift mirror due to their reflective coating. Perona took a quick look at her reflection and decided to leave her hair up in it’s oversized bun. If Robin was able to help her, she figured she’d go straight back to work with the rest of the autopsy and she didn’t want to fight to put her hair up all over again.

Perona grabbed her bag, a miniature backpack designed to resemble a zombie bear with a blue and white striped hat, from where she had left it haphazardly on the floor a few days prior next to her bed. Despite what her friends continually pestered her about, Perona liked having her living quarters as an offshoot of the morgue. She had been used to Moria using it that way, it was convenient, and it gave her the excuse to decorate parts of the morgue as she considered it an extension of her room.

Before she finally headed out, Perona grabbed her little recording den den mushi (whom she called Mushi-e) and put it in her bag, the snail sleeping through all the movement. Something she had learned from her chats with Robin was that taking notes was never enough and recordings were better.

The morgue was housed in the basement of the Dressrosa city hospital, and as such Perona had to walk up stairs to get outside. While sometimes she would go up to the lobby of the building and go out the main doors, she usually walked out a separate smaller staircase that led to a back alley behind the hospital. In particular, she would take that route whenever she was going to the library, which was where her colleague Nico Robin usually could be found.

Nico Robin was an archaeologist by trade, but had also turned herself into a general anthropologist and all-around know-it-all according to Perona. Robin was older than Perona by almost a decade, but the two both had a penchant for dark humor and got along well.

The city library was a grand limestone building, several stories high (although not as tall as the seven-story hospital) to make up for it’s lack of width. Arched doors and windows gave it a gothic feel, and above the ornate front doors was a stained glass window that provided lovely light shows inside for morning visitors. The burgundy front doors always reminded Perona of a castle’s as they were huge, arched doors pointed slightly at the top where the two halves met surrounded on either side by gas lights attached to the stone walls.

Entering the library, Perona didn’t need to ask anyone where Nico Robin was. She was always on the fourth floor in the restricted research section. Perona took the stairs, telling herself some exercise would do her good, although wound up completely out of breath when she reached her destination.

Trying her best to not sound like had just run a marathon, Perona asked the receptionist at the desk if she could see Robin. Before the attendant could even get up to ask the archaeologist’s permission, a forearm appeared out of the desk in front of them and signaled with a thumbs up. Perona smirked as the attendant rolled their eyes, obviously used to Robin’s Flower-Flower devil fruit powers. Perona thanked the receptionist as they unlocked the gate to allow her into the research section and made a beeline for the familiar table that Robin was seated at.

“Perona,” Robin said with a small, but genuine, smile, “it’s been a while. Did you finally finish reading _The Man and the Moor_?” Perona flashed a guilty smile in return.

“Not yet, today I’m here for work actually,” she replied. Robin quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Really? Didn’t Moria teach you everything?” Perona’s smile faltered.

“Well, _yes_, but also no. I just got this case brought to me the other day that feels wrong and I don’t know why or how I’m supposed to make a report on it,” Perona said.

“Okay…so how do you want to approach this?” Robin asked. One good thing about her was that she could always get right to the point when needed, and Perona’s impatient side greatly appreciated that.

“Whatever happened to this guy, it must have been caused by a Devil Fruit. He has cuts all over his body, both superficial and deep,” Perona described.

“That sounds relatively mundane for your line of work…what exactly makes this one so wrong to you?” Perona grabbed her bag, digging out some photos she had taken and threw in her bag at the last second before cleaning up earlier.

“Take a look at these, and just try to tell me they’re not weird,” Perona said, already frustrated by the mere thought of the case. Robin took the photos and studied them for a few minutes before speaking again.

“I’ll be honest Perona, I’m not seeing what you seem to see,” Robin said, frowning slightly. “The lacerations look clean and straightforward, especially the one around the neck.” She paused. “Also, please stop tapping your foot so much, you’re shaking the table.”

Perona shifted, uncrossing her legs and mentally making her foot stop it’s nervous shaking. “Sorry,” she muttered. Then, she leaned over the table to point at the photos. “But that’s the thing, Robin, the cuts are _clean_. _Too_ clean. I’ve never seen cuts that are _that clean_. They should have some sort of jaggedness to them, even a _surgeon_ is going to have some sort of wobble to their hands, this is…”

“Frustrating?” Robin suggested when Perona trailed off, her eyes sparkling with mirth as she watched her friend get worked up.

“Yes!” Perona exclaimed, then looked around to make sure she wasn’t too loud for any other researchers around. “Yes, this is _incredibly_ frustrating. If Moria were still here he’d probably already have an idea of what to tell investigators so they can—”

“But he’s not here, Perona,” Robin cut her off, face softening a bit. “You are, and he would have trusted you to figure this one out, even if it’s not right away like you seem to be expecting.”

Perona groaned, slumping over to put her face on the table in an expression of exasperation. “I know, I know, I sound super impatient and childish right now,” she muttered. She felt Robin patting the back of her head. She slowly brought her head up enough to rest her chin on her palms. “And yes, I am impatient, but my gut is telling me that something about this one is different from what I’ve seen before. I just have no idea how to figure out what about it bothers me so much,” Perona confessed.

She knew that the cuts were too clean as she had already stated, but that was the part that she was okay with not understanding yet. What she wasn’t okay with was her gut screaming at her that something about the case was more than it seemed, even though she couldn’t even figure out why she had that feeling in the first place.

“Well,” Robin sighed, “I could tell you about Devil Fruits that could leave cuts like that…”

“Thank you Robin, that would be a great start honestly, and you know so much more about all that than I do, and I really owe you now, I really do—” Perona started babbling quickly, excited at just the thought of some information that she could maybe use. But Robin cut her off.

“Perona, there are _thousands_ of Devil Fruits that can make wounds similar to those,” she said, her voice flat and matter-of-fact. Perona’s shoulders slumped slightly. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to try and tell you all of that, and neither of us have that kind of time. However, I think I know someone who may be able to give you a different point of view on this,” Robin said.

“Who? I didn’t think there was anyone smarter than you,” Perona said, frowning slightly. Robin laughed, covering her mouth with her hand as she did.

“Thanks, but I think you’ll get better help from someone more specialized in injuries and medicine. You said surgeons wouldn’t even have cuts that clean right? Well, what if you talk to the best surgeon around about it and get his opinion?” Robin suggested.

“I…don’t quite get it. Why would that be better than you?”

“Perona. I’m an archaeologist. I don’t know as much as a doctor or surgeon would about the human body, even if I do find anatomy fascinating. Plus,” Robin hushed her voice to a whisper, “_you_ aren’t a doctor either, remember?” Perona’s face flushed slightly and she pouted.

“Moria taught me everything though, and he said I—”

“I never said you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing. However there are some experiences that you won’t get or understand with your background. Just trust me, I think this will be more beneficial than you think,” Robin said, smiling lightly.

“Okay. Fine,” Perona said, sighing. Robin bloomed a hand from Perona’s shoulder to pat her on the head instead of reaching over the table.

“For the record, I think Moria made the right decision to train you…and to ‘help’ with your resume and application at the hospital. You’re good at what you do, Perona,” Robin said, making Perona smile.

“You’re too nice, shut up,” Perona said with no bite to her words, making Robin smile in reply.

“Heh. Anyways, I’ll make a call to an old friend of mine and see if he’ll help you out,” Robin said.

“What if he doesn’t want to?” Perona asked, smiling as she already guessed the answer.

“He knows better than to ignore me,” she said with a wink. Perona and Robin giggled.

Perona stayed for a bit longer just to chat with Robin about anything other than work—it really had been a while since they had met up—and then said goodbye to head back home, or the morgue, whichever she felt like calling it.

Robin had told her that she should expect a visitor the next day, and that Perona should be prepared in advance to further the autopsy along. As she walked back to the hospital, Perona smiled to herself, feeling significantly less frustrated now that she would _hopefully_ get some insight into the injuries on her new case. Plus, Robin seemed to really respect this person, so maybe she could actually make a new acquaintance within the hospital. It had been a while since she had contacted anyone aside from Robin to just talk or hang out. Making a new friend, or at least a peer that she could get along with, in the hospital that she could see easily would make things a little less boring.

Perona loved her job, it was a part of her. But, Dressrosa was a safe city with a low crime rate, and an even lower homicide rate. Most of the cases Perona had seen so far in her short time as the lead (and only) medical examiner had been ruled in the end as suicides that had simply happened under circumstances that seemed odd to police. The few homicides she had seen were usually cut-and-dry, with investigators able to take her information and apply it to their own case with quick success.

There were five homicides that were notable that she had worked on, and they all ended up being related to organized crime within the city. Three of those had been by the same guy (according to the investigators that occasionally stopped by for paperwork), and the other two had been committed in an attempt to hide evidence for a money laundering case. The final two had been cases of poisoning, but what had been tricky at first were plenty of burn wounds, strangulation marks, and significant blunt force injuries. It had been hard to tell at first what had been the fatal blow, until Perona discovered that it wasn’t an “injury” at all, but ethylene glycol, known also as antifreeze. All of the other injuries were a mix between pre-mortem and post-mortem acts done to lead investigators off the tracks.

The three homicides committed by the same person were supposedly part of a robbery-gone-really-really-wrong, but Perona hadn’t heard much else on it after her information had been passed on. In the end, gunshots were the fatal injuries for the three victims, but the perpetrator had gotten lucky in that the bodies had been found well after decomposition had been taking hold. It had been particularly “icky” as Perona put it, but had managed to find a stray shell casing inside one of the bodies, which the investigators were thrilled about. After that, she hadn’t really heard anything else. She could only assume they caught the guy.

Perona made it back to the morgue as it was growing dark outside, the sun’s light barely seen over the horizon. Deciding to forego working further on the new case, Perona holed herself up in her room, settling Mushi-e down on the little table she had next to her bed.

“Mushi-e, record notes please,” Perona said, sitting on her bed and crossing her legs as she brushed through her hair, still wet from the shower she had just taken. Mushi-e yawned and opened it’s eyes slightly, the only sign Perona needed to know the little snail was listening.

“I talked with Robin about case 32, and she ended up saying she’ll talk with a friend and have them meet with me to help. She said he’s a surgeon here at the hospital, but she didn’t give me a name…so hopefully they’re nice. Otherwise, no new notes on case 32. More to come tomorrow. End recording.” Mushi-e immediately fell back asleep, as if nothing had happened.

Despite being a single room with a small bathroom, Perona’s living quarters were surprisingly spacious. It was more like an apartment, but it had once been an extra freezer for decedents, Moria had once told her. He had converted a storage area into a bathroom, and had added several amenities to make it more comfortable over the decades that he had lived there. After Moria’s death, Perona immediately moved out of her apartment and into the morgue-room. It had immediately felt more like home than anywhere else she had been before.

Remembering Moria, Perona smiled wistfully. Wanting to talk to someone without recording it, she summoned a ghost friend via her Hollow-Hollow fruit powers. The happy ghost, or Hollow as Perona preferred to call them, appeared from the palm of her hand and pretended to sit on the bed with her with it’s knees curled up to its chest, mimicking her.

“I hope he’s happy in whatever afterlife he’s in,” Perona said quietly. “He was a good dad, even if he wouldn’t let me call him that.” The Hollow nodded. Since the Hollows were a part of her, they always knew exactly how she was feeling and how to react. They had a tendency to appear against her will if she was feeling a sudden strong emotion. That had been particularly problematic when she learned of Moria’s death. Nevertheless, as they were a part of her, she loved the little apparitions.

“Hopefully he’s in a place that’s really cute. Otherwise, that’d be kinda depressing,” Perona said, smiling to herself. Moria and she had always liked the same kind of aesthetics. “More than anything, though, I just hope he’s watching out for me and I hope he’s proud of me.” Perona felt her eyes stinging, starting to grow watery. She was childish and impatient, but in the end all she really wanted was to make her family, in this case Moria, proud of her. Her Hollow nodded in sympathy again. Sniffing slightly, Perona dismissed the Hollow and cuddled herself under the blankets of her bed.

She usually stayed up late, but considering that she had no idea who her visitor would be, or when they would even show up, she figured she’d try to get to sleep early.

Thanks to her comforted mindset after talking with Robin, sleep came easily.


End file.
